CITY TO FIGHT LAS LOMAS WITH CASH.Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - The City Council on Tuesday set aside $50,000 to fight a large master-planned community proposed for a site north of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. interchange in the Newhall Pass. Los Angeles County officials also oppose the Las Lomas development proposed by Dan S. Palmer Jr., who wants it annexed to the city of Los Angeles
``This project is clearly too large for the site,'' said Vince Bertoni, Santa Clarita planning manager. Plans call for the 5,800-home community to be carved into the steep terrain of the San Gabriel Mountains San Gabriel Mountains, S Calif., E and NE of Los Angeles, running c.50 mi (80 km) westward from Cajon Pass. San Antonio Peak (10,080 ft/3,072 m) is the highest of the range. Citrus fruits are raised on the southern foothills. along the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. , lowering prominent ridgelines visible from both freeways. The City Council will use the money, from its contingency fund, to hire a Los Angeles-based lobbyist to push Santa Clarita's position and to convene a meeting to marshal opposition to the 555-acre development, which includes a 2.3-million-square-foot business park for high-tech companies. Palmer says Las Lomas - Spanish for ``the hills'' - would be a small town with charm. He is seeking annexation to Los Angeles in order to have access to reliable utilities provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving 3.9 million residents in 2006. It was founded in 1902 to deliver water and electricity supplies to residents and businesses in Los Angeles. . However, the project has drawn fire from environmentalists and officials who fear it would cause myriad problems, including more freeway congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. , the loss of the open space that separates the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys and sever the last remaining wildlife corridor to link the San Gabriel, Santa Susana and the coastal Santa Monica mountain ranges. Los Angeles County officials have called the project ``obviously inappropriate for the topography of the site.'' Santa Clarita has twice before used money from the city's general fund to battle projects outside its jurisdiction that the City Council opposed. Over the past two years, Santa Clarita has spent $1.85 million in the ongoing fight against a planned sand and gravel mine in Soledad Canyon and spent close to $1 million to prevent a landfill from being built in Elsmere Canyon in the early 1990s. |
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